The Quincy Massacre was a major event in the Commonwealth, when the Gunners broke the Commonwealth Minutemen and seized Quincy.
Background[]
Quincy was a large and prosperous settlement in the southeastern Commonwealth. Its prosperity became its undoing when the Gunners set their sights on the city, led by a former Minuteman called Clint. Disillusioned by the petty politics and bickering among the Minutemen, Clint joined forces with the Gunners, believing them to have the strength necessary to bring order to the Commonwealth.[1] The city would have been seized with barely any resistance, were it not for Mama Murphy. In a drug-induced trance, she had a vision of the town surrounded, overrun, and its people dead or captured. At Sturges' insistence, Quincy's mayor put out a call for the Commonwealth Minutemen.[2] The people of the town were skeptical, especially Jun and Marcy Long, who refused to fuel Murphy's addiction for what they considered her delusions.[3]
They reversed their position when a Gunner advance party was spotted making its way towards the monorail. Despite the best efforts of the townsfolk, they continued to make headway until Colonel Ezra Hollis' detachment arrived and attacked the Gunners from behind.[4] A near-breakthrough turned into a rout, with the Minutemen killing a third of the recon force. Although a dozen Gunners retreated safely, Mayor Jackson was relieved and allowed the Minutemen to use his house as barracks. Col. Hollis' group immediately set to fortifying the town, assisted by Sturges, the town's mechanic. Keenly aware he didn't have nearly enough militiamen to hold the town once the Gunners commit to an attack, Col. Hollis put out a call for reinforcements.[5][6]
The town walls were repaired and the stairwell at the monorail platform filled to deny the Gunners access to higher ground. Meanwhile, Hollis had Sturges set up walkways and ramps over the rooftops to give the defenders a vertical advantage and a fallback method. Although they had enough supplies to withstand a long siege, the situation was grim: Nobody responded to the call for reinforcements. Hollis and the townsfolk stood alone against the Gunners, who kept probing the town's defenses every day.[7][8][9] The lack of central leadership after the untimely death of General Becker in 2282 had caught up with the Minutemen, after years of petty politics and squabbles over seniority.[10][11]
On the eve of the Massacre, Clint arrived at the town gates. Hollis' hopes that Clint was bringing reinforcements were dashed when he revealed that he was there to negotiate the city's surrender. Hollis refused to lay down his arms, telling off the former for deserting the Minutemen but fearing what the Gunners could do with him at their lead.[1][12][13]
The Massacre[]
With surrender out of the question, the Gunners attacked the town under cover of night, executing Clint's plan. He blew out the highway's support, causing the road to collapse to the ground. The Gunners rushed up the improvised ramp and attacked the defenders from their elevated firing positions. The nighttime assault, combined with the decisive height advantage, resulted in a total rout for Quincy's defenders. Despite a valiant effort on their part, they never stood a chance.[14][15] The town fell within an hour, with only a small group of survivors slipping away under Preston Garvey's command, alongside anyone who had been keen enough to leave town before the massacre occurred.[16][17]
Aftermath[]
The Gunners seized Quincy and turned it into a fortress, with its citizens dead or driven away. Clint dispatched a squad to track down and eliminate Garvey's group, but they lost them in Jamaica Plain.[18] The group of refugees continued on, steadily dwindling to just five survivors in Concord.[19] Colonel Hollis was captured alive and executed by Clint, to demonstrate his loyalty to the Gunners.[1]
Clint was given command of Quincy by Captain Wes for his actions and made a lieutenant in the Gunners. Determined that the town would not be taken in the same way it had fallen to the Gunners, Clint fortified the highway to act as the main camp and set up a radio tower to maintain contact with Captain Wes.[20] Due to the disorderly nature of his troops and the additional morale lost from the escape of several prisoners they had kept, Clint made plans to have his men attack the Atom Cats garage as an appeasement.[21]
The most lasting impact of the Quincy Massacre was the near-total destruction of the Minutemen as a force in the Commonwealth. The remaining Minutemen gave up after the Massacre, joining other settlers in eking out an existence on the blasted Commonwealth soil.[9]
Notes[]
Piper successfully convinces Danny Sullivan to open the gate by convincing him that the Sole Survivor is a trader from Quincy.[22]
Appearances[]
The Quincy Massacre is mentioned only in Fallout 4.
Gallery[]
References[]
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